Important Note: Tomin, Vala's husband, is dead in this reality.
CHAPTER TWO
Daniel and Sam left the building and were taken back to the others. The expression on the faces of their teammates made them squirm. Teal'c's eyebrow was raised almost to his hairline, Cameron was grinning broadly, and Vala was staring at both of them in surprise and with a smile of her own.
Cameron slapped Daniel on the back heartily. "Way to go, Jackson! I didn't know you had it in you. I bet half the village could hear you two."
Both Sam and Daniel blushed violently.
'This is a nightmare,' Sam groaned silently.
Tafrea came up to them and addressed Vala. "Come. It is your turn."
A big smile brightened Vala's face. After all, since saying no wasn't an option, she might as well enjoy this. It certainly had sounded like Daniel and Sam did.
As Vala was taken away, the other four members of SG-1 sat down. The door had been left open, two armed women stationed outside.
Daniel and Sam avoided looking at their teammates. They would like to have explained to Cameron and Teal'c that it had been an act, but with the door open and those women there, that was out of the question. Explanations would have to wait until after they were back home. Neither of them allowed themselves to think about the fact that not everything that happened in that bed was an act.
"So, Jackson, would you like to explain what's up with these people?" Cameron asked.
"Um, I can't really be sure. What's going on now seems to indicate that sex plays a very important role in their society, and not just for the purpose of procreation. Some cultures in Earth's history included sex as a part of certain celebrations or rituals."
"So, this is some kind of sex ritual."
"That would be my first guess."
When Vala was returned an hour later, Daniel had to admit that she was doing a good job of pretending that she was under the influence of the fruit. The sway of her hips was more pronounced, and there was a heightened air of sensuality about her.
Daniel, Teal'c and Cameron were told to get to their feet.
"Make your choice," Tafrea said to Vala.
"You want her to choose between all three of us?" Cameron asked. "Don't you think that—"
"Silence!" the gray-haired woman snapped.
Cameron stared at her, then shrugged.
The newest member of SG-1 sashayed up to the three men, pretty much undressing them with her eyes. "Mmm. Choices, choices." She looked over her shoulder at Tafrea. "Couldn't I have more than one?"
"I am sorry, but you are allowed only one."
Vala pouted. "Too bad." Her eyes scanned the bodies of the men again, making sounds of appreciation. She then went to Daniel, who was silently saying over and over again, 'Don't pick me. Don't pick me.'
One of Vala's fingers ran across Daniel's lips, down his throat and continued down his body to just above his groin. She leaned in and murmured. "You know how curious I've been all this time about how good you are in bed, Daniel. I bet those hands of yours are very talented. Samantha apparently appreciated their skills."
'Oh, God. This is not happening,' Daniel moaned soundlessly.
Vala took a step back. "However. . . ." She then very unexpectedly grabbed Cameron's collar with both hands and fairly dragged him out the door. An outcry of surprise was jerked from the man's throat.
Daniel was so relieved he nearly collapsed. He sat back down rather heavily. Sam was relieved, too. For some reason, the idea of Daniel being with Vala, even if they were just faking it all, really bothered her, way more than it should have.
Unable to sit still, Daniel got to his feet. He went to the open door.
"Um, excuse me. Could I go outside?" he asked the women stationed there. "I need some fresh air. I won't cause any trouble."
The women looked at each other, then back to Daniel.
"You may go outside, but only one of you. If you attempt to escape or harm someone, you and your male companions will be punished."
"Thank you."
Daniel exited the building and began wandering around under the watchful eye of several women. As he did, he noticed something interesting. He saw several of the men gazing at women with lustful expressions, but none of the women seemed to have any interest in the men at all, virtually ignoring them, with the exception of those who were clearly acting as some kind of security force. Daniel was a bit puzzled by this, considering what was going on with Sam and Vala. Granted, because of the situation with inbreeding and bloodlines, sex merely for pleasure was probably forbidden, but that wouldn't prevent the natural desire between male and female.
At that moment, he saw a very attractive and well-built man brush a hand down a woman's arm. She reacted with obvious disgust, striking his hand away. Two armed women came forward, forcing the man to back away.
Deciding that he needed to learn a bit more about the culture, Daniel approached a man, figuring it would be safer than talking to a woman.
"Hello. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions."
Clearly a little leery of him, the man nodded his head.
"The women here don't seem to be very interested in the men. Why is that?"
"Only when a woman partakes of the Shetai fruit does she desire men."
"Really? That's interesting. Has it always been like that?"
"I do not know. It has been that way for as long as I remember. The women who raised me told me it is the way of things."
"The women who raised you? Where was that? Where are all the children?"
The man pointed at the fence line. "They are in the part of the village that is for children, the women who are with child, and those who can no longer bear children."
"Thanks."
Daniel returned to the others and told them what he'd learned.
"Apparently, children, pregnant women and older women are kept separate from what goes on here," he said, "which makes a certain amount of sense if this part of the village is basically a mating area. It also appears that children are raised communally, not just by their mothers. Probably, once a baby is weaned, the mother is brought back out here. In some ways, that might be a good thing. Then the mothers wouldn't have to watch their sons sicken and die."
"You know, we might have been able to help these people," Sam remarked. "It's possible that Caroline could have figured out what causes the male children to die and find a solution. I even mentioned that to Tafrea, but I guess she wasn't interested."
"It may be that these women would not wish for things to change," Teal'c stated. "If the population of males greatly increased, it is likely that they would eventually seek to gain dominance over the women."
"You could be right about that."
When Cameron and Vala were brought back, they were both looking a bit dazed. There was also a very satisfied smile on Vala's lips.
Daniel and Sam exchanged a look.
"You think they really did it?" Sam whispered.
"I don't know, but, if they did, it'll be very interesting to hear what they're going to tell Landry."
"Well, that was quite stimulating," Vala said, grinning. "I wonder if they'd let us take some of that fruit home."
Tafrea came in. She looked at the men. "You must rest and recuperate now. There are many other women who will mate with you before you leave."
"W-what?" Daniel stammered.
"Now, hold on there," Cameron objected. "You didn't say anything about us having to do this with other women."
Tafrea looked at Sam and Vala. "Since you will not agree to give us males in trade, we decided that we must use your males now to father as many children as possible. It is possible that their blood and yours will strengthen our bloodlines, and less of our own males will die during Fashta."
"What?!" yelled more than one voice.
"Excuse me, but what do you mean when you say their blood and ours?" Vala asked. She laughed a little nervously. "Surely you don't mean that you want us to get pregnant, too."
"Yes, that is the reason you were given the Shetai fruit, so that you would mate and, hopefully, bear children. If it is determined that either of you is with child, that woman will stay here until the baby is born. Then she may leave, and we will keep the child."
"But you said that we could all leave," Sam said.
"If I had told you that you may not all be allowed to leave, I believed that these men of yours would cause trouble. They are very disrespectful of the authority of women. Our warriors could have subdued them, but some may have been harmed."
"Okay, this has gone far enough," Cameron said angrily. "Obviously, things are done differently around here, but, where we come from, people aren't treated like breeding stock. I'm not some prize stud to be taken from stall to stall to service all the mares."
Anger flared in Tafrea's eyes. She drew her dagger and put it to Cameron's throat. Teal'c stepped forward but was stopped when the other native women in the room drew their weapons.
"You will speak no more or I will kill you," Tafrea told him angrily. "It will be a shame to lose your bloodline, but I will not permit any more disrespect from a male."
For several seconds, the air was high with tension as Cameron and Tafrea glared at each other. The tension was broken by the sound of General Landry's voice over SG-1's radios.
"Who speaks?" Tafrea demanded to know.
"That's General Landry," Sam replied. "He is a man of importance in our society."
"SG-1, come in," Landry's voice repeated.
"If we don't answer him, an army will be sent through to find and rescue us."
Tafrea appeared to consider it. "Very well, but, if you ask for aid, I will slit this one's throat."
Sam got on her radio. "This is Colonel Carter. We've . . . run into a bit of a situation here."
"Do you need backup?"
Cameron flinched as the blade bit into the skin of his neck.
Sam thought frantically. "Um, no, that won't be necessary. Wendaris, General."
Landry paused for a couple of seconds. "Understood, Colonel. Landry out."
"What is the meaning of Wendaris?" Tafrea asked suspiciously.
"It means that everything is fine," Sam replied.
The woman studied Sam narrowly for several seconds, then lowered the blade from Cameron's throat. His fingers went to the small cut over his jugular.
Tafrea stepped back, sheathing the knife. "When these males are sufficiently rested, the choosing will resume." She turned to Teal'c. "You need no resting time, but we will wait until all three of you are ready so that the women can choose amongst you."
"I must tell you that I am not human," Teal'c stated. "I am a Jaffa. If your goal is to produce offspring, I may be of no use to you. Even if a human female could conceive with me, the child would be half-Jaffa and may not live beyond the age of Prata without Tretonin."
"He means Fashta," Daniel explained, "and he's talking about both male and female children."
Tafrea stared at Teal'c. "It could be that you are lying."
"He's not," Sam said. "We don't know of any successful breeding between a Jaffa and a human."
The woman kept staring at the Jaffa. "Very well. Though it is possible that you are lying, I would not wish for one of us to mate with a man who could not give her a child. You will be excluded from the choosing."
"Uh, I suppose you wouldn't buy it if I said that Jackson and I are both sterile," Cameron said.
Ignoring him, Tafrea and the other women left the room.
"Yeah, that's what I figured you'd say."
The members of SG-1 moved as far away from the open door as possible and gathered close together.
"Okay, what's Wendaris?" Vala whispered.
"The name of a planet where SG-3 got into a bit of trouble last year," Cameron replied, holding a handkerchief to his wound. "The SGC couldn't use any of the usual methods of extraction, so they came up with another plan."
"A UAV was launched through the gate carrying canisters of a gas that safely renders anyone breathing it unconscious," Sam explained. "The canisters were dropped in the area where SG-3's locators pinpointed them to be. Once the whole area was inundated with gas, two teams were sent through wearing gas masks, preceded by a shock grenade to take care of the people guarding the gate."
"They extracted SG-3 pretty as you please and got the hell out of there. Of course, Reynolds and his team weren't conscious when the extraction took place."
"So, all we have to do is wait for them to send the UAV through," Daniel said, "and then we'll take a little nap. When we wake up, we'll be in the infirmary."
"And how long is this going to take?" Vala asked. "I don't know how long these women think you fine examples of male virility are going to need to . . ." she grinned, "reload."
"I'd say that all depends on how much they know about male physiology," Sam replied.
"This culture appears to be relatively primitive," Daniel said. "In early times, people didn't understand that it takes a certain amount of time for sperm count to build back up."
Cameron spoke up. "Well, judging by the fact that they included you in Vala's," he made air quotes, "choosing, I'd say they don't know that. In fact, considering it had only been an hour, they shouldn't even have expected you to be able to—"
"Cam!" Sam exclaimed, knowing what he had been about to say.
The pilot shrugged. "Well, he is over forty, after all."
That earned him an icy glare from the archeologist.
Sam decided that departing from the topic would be a very good idea. "It won't take long to prepare the UAV for launch, less than an hour, I'd say. All the special equipment and fittings were saved from the last time."
Cameron nodded. "So, we should be okay."
Unfortunately, such was not the case. It had been well under an hour when three women came in.
"It is time for another choosing," one of them said.
Cameron looked at his watch. "Isn't this kind of wishful thinking on your part? Maybe you ladies don't quite understand—"
"You will come with us now," one of the women interrupted sternly.
Daniel, Sam, Cameron and Vala were taken outside, Teal'c having been told to remain inside. A young woman was standing beside Tafrea, and it was clear from the look in her eyes that she was under the influence of the Shetai fruit.
Knowing that they needed to stall as long as possible, Cameron took a chance and spoke up. "Um, excuse me. I know you don't want to listen to me, but don't you think you should give us guys a bit more time to recover from being with these ladies?" He gestured at Sam and Vala.
Tafrea frowned. "You require more time? We had hoped that you would be the same as this other male. I have been told that he recovers very quickly."
Vala grinned from ear to ear, her eyes latching onto Daniel. "Oh, really."
Daniel groaned, wanting to sink into the ground. Please, please, please let this end soon.
He got his wish when they all heard the distant buzz of a UAV's engines. Everyone's eyes went to the sky. The little aircraft soon appeared. Apparently never having seen a flying craft before, the people around them reacted with varying degrees of fear. A few even aimed their bows at it.
As soon as it got over the village, the UAV began dropping its payload. Gas canisters starting exploding all around, causing panic. And then came the coughing as the gas filled everyone's lungs. Knowing what was going to happen, SG-1 got down on their knees, watching as people around them collapsed to the ground. Then the dizziness hit them. Seconds later, the blackness of unconsciousness descended.
Daniel's eyes blinked open to the sight of the infirmary ceiling.
"Welcome back."
The archeologist turned to look at Doctor Lam. "How long have I been out?"
"A little over an hour and a half, which is normal. Teal'c, of course, woke up sooner."
Daniel lifted his head and looked around. Teal'c was standing a few feet way. Sam, Cameron and Vala were all in beds, appearing to still be unconscious.
Daniel attempted to sit up, but was hit by a wave of dizziness.
"Whoa," Caroline said. "Not so fast. It's going to take a few more minutes for the effects of the gas to completely wear off."
"I'm a little nauseous."
"Also normal. It will go away soon."
The doctor raised the head of Daniel's bed. As she was doing that, Sam started waking up. Caroline went over to her, cautioning her to lie still.
"Did they get everyone out?" the astrophysicist asked.
"Yes, everyone is here."
"Hey, Sam," Daniel called.
She turned her head toward him. "Daniel? Wow, we got out just in the nick of time, didn't we."
"Yep."
"Now that some of you are conscious, I can ask my questions," Caroline said. "Do I need to run any kinds of tests on you?"
Sam made a face. "Yes, you probably do, on me and Vala."
"Does it have anything to do with this?" The doctor held up a piece of fruit within a sample bag.
"Where did you get that?"
"It was in Vala's pocket."
"She must have pocketed a piece when they gave the fruit to her," Daniel guessed.
"I've run some preliminary tests on it and found some pretty interesting things," Caroline said.
Sam sighed. "Yes, I bet you did."
The doctor looked at her. "Would you like to tell me about it?"
Cameron and Vala both woke up just then. They were suffering the same dizziness and nausea, but were otherwise fine.
"Where's Teal'c," the Air Force pilot asked.
"He woke up quite some time ago and has been released," Caroline replied. "So, would you like to tell me what happened now? Teal'c wouldn't tell me."
"No, no really," Sam replied. "We're already going to have to suffer through telling General Landry. Couldn't he, um, fill you in?"
At that moment, Landry walked in.
"How are they doing, Doctor?" he asked Caroline.
"Fine, sir. They should all be up on their feet very soon."
"Good." He turned to SG-1. "I'm betting that you have quite an interesting tale to tell."
"You have no idea, General," Cameron responded.
"I'll look forward to hearing it. Debriefing's in one hour." Landry turned around and left the ward.
Caroline looked at the faces of the five members of SG-1. The expression on the four humans told her that this was a very long story that promised to raise lots of eyebrows.
"All right, I can find out about it later. I just need to know one thing right now." She lifted the bag containing the piece of fruit. "What is this?"
"A really good time that grows on trees," Vala replied with a grin.
"Excuse me?"
"It's an aphrodisiac," Sam clarified. "A very powerful one."
Caroline eyebrows rose. "I see."
Blood and urine samples were taken from Sam and Vala. Then the four human members of SG-1 were released.
They went to the locker rooms and took showers. On their way out of the separate rooms for men and women, Sam and Daniel nearly bumped into each other.
"Sorry," they both said. They stood there in silence for a few seconds.
Daniel was the first to speak again. "Um . . . Sam, about . . . you know. I'm sorry if I—"
"No," Sam interrupted, having a feeling that she knew what he was going to say. "It was both of us, Daniel. Maybe the fruit did have an affect on me after all. It was just delayed."
"Which gives you an excuse, but not me."
"It's okay, Daniel. I mean, it's not like it went very far. We're fine."
Daniel's eyes searched hers. "Are we?"
She smiled, laying a hand on his arm. "Yes, Daniel, we are."
A short while later, the five members of SG-1 were sitting in the briefing room. They began recounting events from the beginning. Daniel took over by explaining about the mortality rate of male children and the roles of men and women in the society.
"I'm guessing that it wasn't always like that," he said. "Somewhere in their distant history, something happened to cause the male children to start dying during puberty. As the male population declined, women began taking over control. They came to realize that some changes would have to be made to assure the survival of their people, and what we saw was the ultimate result."
"Men are definitely lower class citizens there," Cameron said. "In fact, it looks like men have no say whatsoever in the way things are done." He briefly touched the bandage that covered the cut on his neck.
Landry nodded. "Go on."
"They wanted to do some tradin', General, and Jackson, Teal'c and I were what they wanted to trade for, in exchange for some of their own men."
"Needless to say, we refused the offer," Daniel said. He told Landry about the team being taken to a place to wait, then Sam being asked to join Tafrea.
Sam took over from him, mentioning the woman's offer of trading other things for men. "A tray of water and something she called Shetai fruit was brought out, and she offered some to me."
"I hope you were smart enough not to eat any, Colonel."
Sam's gave him a sheepish look. "I did refuse, sir, but Tafrea was hinting that it would show disrespect for their customs if I didn't eat any. She started eating some, so I figured it was safe, and I didn't want to insult them and cause trouble. If an incident had started, there's no way that we'd have made it back to the gate."
"I don't know about Samantha, but, once I got a taste, I definitely wanted more," Vala said.
Landry looked at her. "You ate some, too?"
"That was later, sir," Sam replied. "You see, what I didn't know at the time was that the fruit is a powerful aphrodisiac."
Landry stared at her, his eyebrows lifting.
"Apparently, the women have no sexual desire for men unless they eat the fruit," Daniel told the general. "It's their way of assuring procreation and making it a pleasurable experience for women."
"I'm not liking the direction this is taking, SG-1," Landry said.
Sam grimaced in discomfort. "No, sir, and I'm afraid it gets worse."
"They wanted Samantha and me to make babies!" Vala blurted, grinning.
"And guess who were to be the lucky papas," Cameron said.
Landry lowered his head into his hands. "I really don't want to hear this." He sighed and raised his head. "Hit me with it."
Daniel took up the narrative. "You see, when we refused to give them new males, they decided that they were going to take advantage of the fact that we were there and breed us with as many women as they could so that we'd add to the diversity of their bloodlines. They also intended to get Sam and Vala pregnant, then keep the babies after they were born."
"But we didn't know any of this at the time," Cameron explained. "We were led to believe that all we had to do was have a little SG-1 lovin', then we could all go home. We thought it was just some weird alien sex ritual or something."
Sam explained how, after she ate the fruit, she was told to pick a man with whom to mate, whether a member of SG-1 or one of the other males in the village.
"And you couldn't just say no?" Landry questioned.
"Well, sir, the Shetai fruit apparently makes a woman so . . . turned on that she has a craving for sex that she can't ignore," Sam explained, thinking that, in all the years she'd been on SG-1, this was, without a doubt, the most excruciatingly embarrassing debriefing she'd ever had. "After she's eaten one, she's allowed to choose what man to mate with. Thankfully, I wasn't affected by it."
"You weren't?!" Cameron and Vala exclaimed simultaneously.
"What about all those noises we heard you and Jackson making?" the pilot asked.
"We were faking it," Daniel and Sam said in unison. They turned to Landry.
"I figured it might not be a good thing if they knew that I was unaffected," Sam said, "so I pretended to be. I chose Daniel, and we put on an act. Fortunately, we weren't being watched, just listened in on."
"Soooo . . . you two didn't, uh, do anything at all?" Cameron asked. He looked like he desperately wanted to hide somewhere.
Sam's eyes widened. "Oh my God! You did actually do it!"
"Permission to disappear under the table now, sir," Cameron requested from the general.
"Permission denied. Talk."
"Well, I had a nice little chat with the woman in charge," Vala said. "Then she gave me the fruit, and, oh my." She fanned herself. "I would highly recommend it for all orgies, General."
"But I thought that the reason why I wasn't affected was because I used to be a host," Sam said, wrapping her mind around the fact that Cameron and Vala actually had sex.
"Apparently not." Vala looked at her three male teammates. "Like Samantha, I was allowed to choose which of these fine specimens I'd have a good time with. I was oh so very tempted to pick Daniel, but, since I thought he might still be recovering from being with Samantha," she faced her other human male teammate, "I chose Cameron. I have to say that I wasn't disappointed."
Daniel was now busy thinking about how close he came to having to have sex with Vala. He looked at the man who did have sex with her. Cameron appeared to be contemplating an attempt to merge his atoms with the chair and vanish forever.
"Colonel?" Landry said to him in a tone of voice that promised a whole lot of future woes for the Air Force pilot.
"I, uhhhh . . . well, you see, I. . . ." Cameron sighed. "Yes, sir, we had sex."
"I'd already determined that, Colonel Mitchell. What I'd like to know is why? I'd dearly love for you to tell me that you ate some of the fruit, too, and couldn't help yourself."
"Wish I could, sir. You have no idea how much I wish that."
"Well, then?"
Sam stepped in to rescue Cameron. "Sir, when I picked Daniel, he was told that, if he failed to . . . please me, he, Colonel Mitchell and Teal'c would all suffer the consequences. In other words, men aren't allowed to say no. If Colonel Mitchell had refused Vala's advances, they might all be dead or, at the very least, severely injured."
Cameron mouthed the words "Thank you" to Sam.
Landry stared at the pilot for a very long time, then he turned to Teal'c. "And did you potentially father any children as well?"
"I did not."
"Thank God for small favors." Landry looked at the others. "Proceed."
Sam continued the narrative. "After Vala and Colonel Mitchell, uh, returned, we were all left alone so that Daniel and Colonel Mitchell could. . . ."
"Recharge their equipment," Vala interjected saucily, which resulted in glares from the two men about whom she was referring.
"That's when we found out that we were expected to mate with other women as well," Daniel said, "and that the reason for what went on before was to get Sam and Vala pregnant."
"I objected, which is how I got this." Cameron pointed at the wound.
"That's when you radioed us, sir," Sam said. "Tafrea had the knife to Colonel Mitchell's throat, so I couldn't openly request help. I also knew that if a few SG teams came through the gate on a rescue mission, there could be casualties. I thought of the incident on Wendaris and figured it was the best option."
Landry was silent for several seconds. He then glared at all of them. "Well, SG-1, I must congratulate you. You have, without a doubt, succeeded in creating one of the most royally screwed missions in the history of the Stargate Program. Pun intended."
"Yes, sir," Daniel, Sam and Cameron all mumbled.
"Explaining this one to my superiors is going to be one of the defining moments of my career. I can already hear Jack laughing his ass off."
"Oh, God," Sam whispered, covering her face. She'd forgotten that Jack would be told. She furtively glanced at Daniel and saw that he'd sunk several inches in his chair, his face the picture of a man who knew that he'd soon be descending into hell.
"I expect your written reports of this fiasco on my desk before I leave today," Landry said. "Dismissed."
SG-1 slunk out of the briefing room, well, all except for Teal'c, that is, who had no reason to slink. They went to Daniel's office.
"We are so screwed," Cameron said miserably.
A smiling Vala ran her fingers up his arm. "We already did that, darling."
The lieutenant colonel batted her hand away. "Will you stop that?"
Vala pouted. "Why, Cameron. You're going to make me believe that you didn't enjoy our time together." The pout became a sultry smile. "You certainly seemed to be enjoying it at the time."
Cameron wheeled about with an angry glare, his finger pointing straight up a few inches from Vala's face. "Stop. Right now. If you say one more word about this, one single word, to anyone, I will personally boot you through the nearest Stargate connected to a black hole. You got it?"
Vala sighed. "Fine. If you want to be that way about it." She turned to Daniel and Sam. "Were you really telling the truth about faking it? I think you actually did it and just don't want to admit it." She grinned brightly. "Come on. Fess up. We won't tell."
Daniel stared at her for a long moment, then turned to Cameron. "I can give you the address for the gate."
"Daniel Jackson and Colonel Carter would not have stated falsehoods in the debriefing," Teal'c declared.
"Thank you," both Sam and Daniel said.
Cameron looked at them sourly. "Which means that, when this gets around base, while you two will just be teased about having to pretend you were having sex, Vala and I will be given the prestigious title of being the first two SG teammates to get high on alien fruit and bang each other's brains out. Correction. Vala got high. I just got stupid." He rose to his feet. "I'm going to go hit something in the gym . . . repeatedly."
"Yeah . . . me too," Daniel said, also rising.
"I have no need to release my anger upon an inanimate object," Teal'c stated.
"Lucky you," Cameron muttered before departing, followed by Daniel.
